The Central Government has recently accorded “In Principle” approval for setting up 21 greenfield airports across India.

• The airports include Goa’s Mopa, Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai, Shirdi and Sindhudurg, Karnataka’s Kalaburgi, Vijayapura, Hassan and Shivamoga, Madhya Pradesh’s Dabra (Gwalior) Uttar Pradesh’s Kushinagar and Noida (Jewar), Gujarat’s Dholera and Hirasar, Karaikal in Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh’s Dagadarthi, Bhogapuram and Oravakal (Kurnool), West Bengal’s Durgapur, Sikkim’s Pakyong, Kerala’s Kannur and Donyi Polo, Arunachal Pradesh’s Itanagar.
• Nine new greenfield airports in Durgapur, Shirdi, Kannur, Pakyong, Kalaburgi, Oravakal (Kurnool), Sindhudurg, Kushinagar and Donyi Polo, Itanagar is already in operation.
• The government has given “in-principle” approval to the Gujarat government to develop two greenfield airports at Rajkot’s Hirasar and Ahmedabad’s Dholera.
• The state government has teamed up with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to develop the Hirasar airport at Rs 1,405 crore.